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The first time I meet Claudia de Pablo Vicens, the charming Spanish-born nose behind New York’s Tramuntana perfumery, it’s over the unlikely medium of Skype. She’s in Majorca for three weeks with her husband and business partner, Christophe, checking on the handmade ceramic mold that’s used to make their fragrant candles; I’m in Manhattan, toiling, signature scentless, in front of my laptop.

The geographical difference doesn’t phase de Pablo Vicens, who is used to working with clients around the world for her custom perfume business—because the desire for a deeply personal, soul-defining scent is one that exerts a near universal pull. “You can get rid of the clothes, the jewelry, the makeup—but the perfume? It’s always there on your skin,” she says with her lilting accent. In fact, it was de Pablo Vicens’s own quest for a one-of-a-kind fragrance that led her to start experimenting with custom blending. “I was always looking for the perfect perfume. Sometimes I’d find one I liked, but then eventually I’d smell it on someone else—and I’d be crushed,” she says. After making a hobby out of blending her own perfumes, she moved on to mixing scents for friends and family using the purest oils and essences she could source and, before, long, found herself fielding a litany of inquiries. Last year, she gave up her job as a producer of fashion events and devoted herself full time to her craft.

For clients like me who sign on for the company’s custom blending service, explains de Pablo Vicens, the process goes something like this: After contacting Tramuntana, you’ll receive an in-depth list of questions over e-mail. Some are straightforward (“What fragrances have you worn in the past?”), while others are more personal. According to Christophe, it’s a bit like a Proust Questionnaire—a kind of emotional blueprint that allows de Pablo Vicens to start forming an initial olfactory profile. Next, using your answers, she’ll put together a mood board of images based on her assessment for your approval. Mine arrives on a Saturday afternoon with a thoughtful note from de Pablo Vicens: “The ballet dancers are a picture of Alexey Brodovitch,” she says, referencing a distorted black-and-white print that’s a nod to my years as a dancer; another, depicting a library wall’s worth of beautifully bound books, captures my love of old leather and paper.

Images, explains, de Pablo Vicens, are often subconsciously linked to scent preferences, and it’s true that looking at a third picture of a Mediterranean blue seascape (also mentioned in my questionnaire), I can almost smell the aroma of crisp green vegetation mingled with salt water.

Revisions are strongly encouraged if one of the photos fails to charm, but since mine is spot on, I give her the approval to move onto the actual blending stage. Within a week, a tiny pochette containing three numbered vials arrives at my door. Initially, I’m drawn to vial No. 1—a sweet floral of orange blossom, lily, and vanilla with a slightly salty seaside note—but after heeding her advice to wear each perfume and how it melds with my skin, I find that I’m ultimately drawn to a different blend of tobacco, bergamot, black pepper, and sandalwood. I do have one request, “Can you make it a little stronger and spicier?” I ask her over e-mail.

She can, she responds. One more round of revisions results in a bolder rendition of the scent, which de Pablo Vicens will eventually hand pour into one of the company’s heavy glass 1.7 oz bottles. This one, she explains, contains a stronger level of tobacco and pepper, and a dash of clove.

The verdict? It is warm and delicious and slightly masculine—and very, very me.